Indian tennis stars Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza have been handed easy draws in their respective singles events at Wimbledon, starting here on Monday.
Somdev, ranked 68th in the world, will face Germany's Denis Gremelmayr (110th), while World No.60 Sania has been drawn against France's Virginie Razzano, 38 places below her in the WTA charts, in the prestigious grass court tournament.
In the men's doubles, third seeded Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will take on the unseeded Croatian pair of Ivan Dodig and Lovro Zovko in their opening round while the fourth seeded Indian-Pakistani pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi face the Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
Somdev and his Japanese partner Kei Nishikori will face the German combination of Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske in their men's doubles opening round clash.
In the women's doubles, fourth seeded Sania and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina, who finished runners-up in the French Open earlier this month, will lock horns against the American-Russian duo of Melanie Oudin and Anna Chakvetadze in the first round.
The mixed doubles draw will be announced on June 22.
Nadal against Russell
World No.1 Rafael Nadal will open the defence of his Wimbledon title against American Michael Russell and has been drawn in the other half of the draw to Roger Federer, raising the possibility of another final between the great rivals.
Six-time champion Federer, the third seed, starts his campaign against Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin, and has been drawn in the same half as World No.2 Novak Djokovic, whose 41-match winning streak was broken by the Swiss this month.
The Serb could face Federer in the last four, weeks after the former world number one beat him in the French Open semifinals to inflict his first defeat of the year.
Had Djokovic won that match, he would have ousted Nadal from top spot, but instead the Spaniard arrives at the All England Club with his top ranking intact as he seeks a third Wimbledon crown.
Djokovic takes on France's Jeremy Chardy in the first round, while Nadal's potential semifinal opponent Andy Murray opens his campaign against Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
Home favourite Murray, the fourth seed, warmed up for the tournament with victory at the Queen's Club grass court event, heightening public expectations of a first British men's Grand Slam champion since 1936.
The first-round limelight could be stolen by American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, who have been drawn against each other a year after their epic 11-hour battle in the same round, the longest ever tennis match.
Tricky draw
In the women's singles, champion Serena Williams was drawn in the opposite side of the draw to her sister and five-time champion Venus, but in the same half as World No.1 CarolineWozniacki and another pre-tournament favourite Maria Sharapova.
Serena, seeded seventh after being sidelined for almost a year because of life-threatening blood clots on her lung as well as a foot injury, takes on France's Aravane Rezai in the first round of what could be a tricky draw for her.
Wozniacki, seeking a maiden Grand Slam title, has an opening encounter, which looks a pretty straight-forward one, against number 107Arantxa Parra Santonja, but danger lurks in the shape of Sharapova.
French Open champion Li Na of China, who became the first Asian player to win a Grand Slam title this month, is also in Serena's half of the draw and faces Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva in round one.
Venus, back from an injury layoff, could pose an early threat to last year's runner-up Vera Zvonareva and the American knows how to win from a lower seeding, having triumphed in 2007 as the 23rd seed, the same as she is this time.
